1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid surface material fabrication station, a mobile fabrication unit for use in fabricating solid surface materials, especially construction materials and a method of fabricating solid surface materials.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years solid surface construction materials have become increasingly popular, especially for use as a countertop surface. The term "solid surface" construction material refers to a number of different products, such as CORIAN by Dupont, FOUNTAINHEAD, and other synthetic materials as well as solid surface veneer such as NUVEL by Formica and similar products sold by Wilson Art.
The fabrication of such products may be tightly controlled, for example. Dupont, for example, sells CORIAN only to certified fabricators who have fabrication shops that meet certain strict standards set by Dupont.
However, the traditional system and method for fabricating such sheet materials typically takes several days to complete.
First, a crew of people must take the necessary measurements for a particular job, such as measuring out a countertop. This typically involves a process referred to as "templating," namely, using particle board, plywood, cardboard or other disposable material, and creating a template, or a pattern, for cutting the solid surface material stock as required. The template is then taken back to an offsite fabrication shop where the solid surface material is fabricated accordingly. The thus-fabricated solid surface material is then transported back to the worksite and installed. Often, the above-described templating process is relatively inaccurate, so measuring errors and the like occur, and must be compensated for in an additional onsite final fitting process. Because of this, the entire process typically requires more than one week to complete. This is highly problematic from the fabricator's perspective in terms of staffing and work flow. Moreover, from the customer's point of view, the large amount of time and labor required is inconvenient and, indeed, disruptive. For these reasons, it is believed that the conventional fabrication process may restrict, or even discourage, customers from purchasing and installing solid surface construction materials, such as CORIAN.